If you had been kicking around Long Beach Poly in the mid-90s, you could have seen a sneak preview of Tuesday’s All-Star Game.

In 1995 and 1996, the Jackrabbit baseball team featured teenagers by the names of Chase Utley and Milton Bradley, who were starters in the 79 th edition of baseball’s All-Star Game in New York, Philadelphia’s Utley starting at second base for the National League and Texas’ Bradley as DH for the American League.

From a 1996 Moore League preview by Steve Irvine in the Press-Telegram: “Poly’s optimism is fueled by an excellent performance in summer competition and a strong core of returnees that include outfielder Milton Bradley and … second baseman Chase Utley.”

Baseball is all about numbers, but this kind of mathematical improbability would impress even the most devoted statistician.

The sport, after all, has been around since the late 1800 s, but there have been a mere 16,500-plus major league players in history. The All-Star Game has been around since 1933 and is limited to about 60 players each year.

So the odds that two former prep teammates would be in the same All-Star Game seems as steep as accurately guessing the names of Brangelina’s new children.

The only other pair of prep teammates who were All-Stars in the same season, as far as one with limited time to scour history can tell, were Ozzie Smith and Eddie Murray, teammates at Locke High and multiple All-Stars.

Bill Powell had a close dugout seat for their careers. In 1995 and 1996, he coached against them across town at Jordan. In 1997, he became head coach at Poly and coached Utley for a year and became friends with Bradley when the outfielder would come back to train at Poly in the offseason.

“Chase was the best coaching job I ever did,” Powell said. “I left him alone. The first thing I did when I got to Poly was tell the coaches to let him hit on his own. If he asked a question, be there for him, but otherwise let him be.

“When I first saw him, I felt he was a young Ted Williams. Some young men are just born to hit. Chase was very disciplined and he really developed as a power hitter in his senior year. He hit 14 home runs that season and popped three home runs out of Blair, and you know how rare it is to see a left-handed hitter power balls out of Blair. I saw him in an American Legion game versus Downey one summer, and he hit a home run in his first at-bat and Downey walked him with the bases loaded the next two at-bats.”

Utley is in his sixth season and already has 122 career home runs in 670 games. He’s hitting .291 with 25 home runs, just off his career high of 32. For comparison sakes, Hall of Fame second baseman Ryne Sandberg hit 282 home runs in 2,164 games, and Dodgers second baseman Jeff Kent 374 in 2,256.

Utley is the leading candidate for NL MVP.

Powell watched Bradley bedevil his Jordan teams for two seasons. They became friends when Bradley asked Powell if he could work out on campus in the offseason, and he eventually set up his own baseball academy on campus.

Even though Milton never played for Powell – Ken Munger was the head coach at Poly when Bradley played – he became a steadfast booster and donor to Powell’s program.

“The key to beating Poly those two seasons was keeping Milton off the bases so Chase couldn’t drive him in,” Powell said. “Milton was a terror on the bases and was a very good hitter. He had great instincts and a good arm.

“Milton was a great kid. I would always ask him to talk to the kids on the team and he always gave his time to them.”

Bradley is hitting .316 with a stunning .440 on-base percentage and he’s already tied his career high for home runs with 19, set while he was with the Dodgers. He’s on course for a career season in a career that has seen him only play 100 or more games in a season twice.

Powell has no insight into Bradley’s reputation in the majors – he’s with his sixth team in nine seasons – because he’s never seen that side of him. Indeed, he thinks Utley and Bradley both have succeeded for the same reason – good family support.

“Chase’s dad, David, I couldn’t say enough good things about him,” Powell said. “He was always supportive of Chase and never interfered, which as a coach you really come to appreciate.

“Milton’s mom is the same way, a big-hearted, wonderful lady who was always there for her son. They’re great young men.”

If there’s any other oddity about the two Poly All-Stars, it’s that they never had a winning season or made the CIF playoffs as teammates. The 1996 team made a late run for the postseason and finished .500.

“Poly has never had enough pitching in the Moore League,” Powell said.

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